As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Just back from FL and my first time venturing off WDW property thanks to this great section of the boards! We went to IoA first and got everything done that we wanted to do by 11:00 (didn't do dr. doom, storm force, hulk or dueling dragons but they were all walk ons). I'm happy to report I managed to do spiderman with only a little queasy feeling, but that went away right away! I even did spinning version of cat in the hat but didn't like it but was only a little queasy, ha! We walked right onto Pteranadon Flyers, well, walked right onto all the attractions! I opted not to do the wet rides this early in the a.m. (glad I didn't cuz I sure got soaked!!!!). I didn't get sinbad show in because first showing was at 1:00. We basically had the parks to ourselves. When walking on a path, you'd only see a couple other people. It was great, but kind of eerie! I planned on going over to US and then coming back to do 3 water rides at IoA last.
So, we looked around made it over to US by 11:30 because we looked around suess landing and did cat in hat and sky tram. (we upgraded our one day one park passes at IoA, too.) Once at US, I walked right onto Mummy. Happy to report, no motion sickness, only scared to death, ha! My mom opted out on it and when I got off, she asked what I saw and I couldn't even remember, I think I was so scared for what might happen. I probably should have done it again so I could have looked around more! I figured I'll do it next time and then not be so scared for what might happen. (I did the same thing at RnR, couldn't remember anything after my first trip on it!) It was odd that IoA was all walk ons and US wasn't. It was really odd because we must have waited about 35 min for Jaws but walked right onto MIB. I loved MIB but we really spun a lot and I didn't like that. I think this motion prone woman will stick to Buzz Lightyear, but it was more fun than buzz, except for the spinning part. My kids will LOVE it! I don't think my Mom scored any points until right at the end and I did score points but not many compared to the 3 people opposite us! Again, I didn't do the shows, cuz this was a mission to check out which rides my kids will be able to do. The only thing I didn't get done was Shrek (figured kids can do that being it's not a ride) and T2:3D. I should have done that one, but after a whole day doing rides and 3d/4D stuff, I just couldn't do one more! I felt like I do at the end of a day at Disney Quest, too motion simulator/3D'd out! So, we walked back to IoA and I did the 3 WET rides. It was a 35 minute wait for Ripsaw falls. I was bummed, thinking I should have done them in the a.m., but when I got over to Popeye/Bluto Barge, I walked right on as I did on Jurassic Park River Adventure. Not sure what the hold up was on the Ripsaw??? I loved all 3 of them. I was almost completely wet on Ripsaw, only got misted on Jurassic, but SAT in pool of water after getting drenched immediately on the barge ride. I LOVED it though. We had such a fun group of people on there. I was the first to get soaked and everyone was pointing and laughing which made it more fun. BUT, one by one, they all had their turns at getting soaked at least once if not more. So, we all had fun laughing as each of us got wet. Everyone in the raft was putting their shoes in the dry storage area, even though the signs said you must wear shoes. I was so glad I did too. I can't stand wet shoes and socks. But I did have to ring out my shirt and shorts and stand there and dry off a little before I put my shoes an socks back on. I LOVED this ride, it was gentle and no drops to scare my scardy cat son, he will love it. I could have rode this ride again and again! I almost didn't do the wet rides but I'm so glad I did.
So with one hour left before our Mears shuttle pick up, Mom and I hit happy hour at NBA city. I was just too rided out to do any repeats. Even though it wasn't crowded, it had been a long day in HOT, HOT, HUMID, HUMID weather. I forgot to mention that we had made reservations for Boma for dinner at 5 p.m. on this day, but we were able to change them to the night we arrived so that we wouldn't have to leave early. I'm so glad we could do that, because I needed the last couple of hours to finish up and feel like I got everything done that I wanted to get done. I found it so odd that US was busier, but I suppose it was just that more people were out in the afternoon than at park opening.
Thanks once again for all the great advice and all the help with my many, many questions. I couldn't have done it without ya!
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Yay! I had a feeling after the low crowds we encountered the weekend before that you would get a lot done. I'm happy you did Spiderman, Mummy, and MIB!
The reason IOA was empty but US was more crowded when you arrived is that Universal crowds don't arrive when the park opens. For some reason the parks don't start to get busy until lunchtime.
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I'm so glad you tried all the attractions that you did! US/IoA are so much fun. People just have to quit comparing them to the Disney parks! It sounds like you had a wonderful time and that you know what your kids will enjoy when they get the opportunity to attend these parks! Congratulations on trying stuff you were a little uncomfortable with.
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We walked right onto Pteranadon Flyers, well, walked right onto all the attractions! I opted not to do the wet rides this early in the a.m. (glad I didn't cuz I sure got soaked!!!!). I didn't get sinbad show in because first showing was at 1:00. We basically had the parks to ourselves. When walking on a path, you'd only see a couple other people. It was great, but kind of eerie! I planned on going over to US and then coming back to do 3 water rides at IoA last. 
I probably should have done it again so I could have looked around more! I figured I'll do it next time and then not be so scared for what might happen. (I did the same thing at RnR, couldn't remember anything after my first trip on it!) It was odd that IoA was all walk ons and US wasn't. It was really odd because we must have waited about 35 min for Jaws but walked right onto MIB. I loved MIB but we really spun a lot and I didn't like that. I think this motion prone woman will stick to Buzz Lightyear, but it was more fun than buzz, except for the spinning part. My kids will LOVE it! I don't think my Mom scored any points until right at the end and I did score points but not many compared to the 3 people opposite us! Again, I didn't do the shows, cuz this was a mission to check out which rides my kids will be able to do. The only thing I didn't get done was Shrek (figured kids can do that being it's not a ride) and T2:3D. I should have done that one, but after a whole day doing rides and 3d/4D stuff, I just couldn't do one more! I felt like I do at the end of a day at Disney Quest, too motion simulator/3D'd out!
So, we walked back to IoA and I did the 3 WET rides. It was a 35 minute wait for Ripsaw falls. I was bummed, thinking I should have done them in the a.m., but when I got over to Popeye/Bluto Barge, I walked right on as I did on Jurassic Park River Adventure. Not sure what the hold up was on the Ripsaw??? I loved all 3 of them. I was almost completely wet on Ripsaw, only got misted on Jurassic, but SAT in pool of water after getting drenched immediately on the barge ride. I LOVED it though. We had such a fun group of people on there. I was the first to get soaked and everyone was pointing and laughing which made it more fun. BUT, one by one, they all had their turns at getting soaked at least once if not more. So, we all had fun laughing as each of us got wet. Everyone in the raft was putting their shoes in the dry storage area, even though the signs said you must wear shoes. I was so glad I did too. I can't stand wet shoes and socks. But I did have to ring out my shirt and shorts and stand there and dry off a little before I put my shoes an socks back on. I LOVED this ride, it was gentle and no drops to scare my scardy cat son, he will love it. I could have rode this ride again and again!
I almost didn't do the wet rides but I'm so glad I did.
Michelle
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Michelle - with my step sisters!
It sounds like you had a wonderful time and that you know what your kids will enjoy when they get the opportunity to attend these parks! Congratulations on trying stuff you were a little uncomfortable with. 
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